Is there any history of education or "public awareness" being effectual? You believe there is the slightest chance the kid who O.D.'ed wasn't educated of the dangers of heroin? Yes? Message / Conversation me. I have some great land to sell you in Florida. In the Hurricane Free Zone. Ocean front on a granite base unlike most of the State. Don't miss out a great opportunity. I also have a bridge opportunity in New York City. You will get rich on charging tolls. Moi r > g Across an immense, unguarded, ethereal border, Canadians, cool and unsympathetic, regard our America with envious eyes and slowly and surely draw their plans against us.
There is no solution to heroin addiction. It culminates in a cocktail of drugs resulting in heart failure. End of story.
You are totally fokked in the head if you thing free and ready access to addicting substances is a GOOD idea. It is a very bad idea. Tweeker !!!
Drug abuse has nothing to do with lack of 'prevention'. It's a symptom of dysfunction, and no amount of warnings or information is going to make any difference. Everyone knows smoking will kill you, but people still do it. The only actual prevention, is raising your kids right.
I was just going to say the same thing. Usually people who would do a drug like heroin are self medicating for some other issue. I don't know how much it has to do with raising your kids right though, as it is becoming more and more a middle class problem among teens. I think when a teen starts using heavy drugs like that, it is because they are stupid. When an adult does it, there is definitely an underlying serious issue.
Bull. It's entirely down to bad parenting. The poorest parents can produce sound adults, who never once use drugs in their entire lives. You're engaging in 'not my fault' protest. Favoured by those who don't want responsibility for how their kids turn out.
It's entirely about the soundness of the person .. and unsound people exist at all socio-economic strata. The reason it's cropping up more in the middle classes, is that the middle classes have begun to opt out of parenting their kids.
Most kids use drugs because they think it's "cool" because they are stupid. Not because they are in "despair" over politics or anything else, although I'm sure that is a reason for some of them. People like Miley Cyrus with her "mollies" talk isn't helping matters either, and then I get disgusted when I see them singing her praises on a show like The Today Show, and they laugh and giggle when she talks about doing mollies. Bunch of celebrity suck up nozzles is what they are.
OMG. Yes there is, just look at any modern society in which drugs aren't a problem, and you'll get your solution. RAISE YOUR KIDS RIGHT, and they won't turn to drugs.
Only dysfunctional kids think drugs are cool. Plenty don't think anything of the sort. Check out Chinese American teenagers .. are they doing drugs?
Some of them, yes. I knew plenty of kids who grew up in good homes (upper middle class) and had good families and still did drugs because they thought they were cool!
I agree though, that if you are from an abusive or a bad home life, then that increases the risks of drug addiction ten fold. However, there are plenty of kids who do not have such problems that also use drugs. Plenty of them drink a ton of alcohol too.
Decriminalize it, tax its sale, all revenue goes to subsidize education against using it and voluntary programs to help folks kick it. Which I guess is technically not any different than OP suggestion (giving them what they want), but puts all the moral responsibility onto the individual (where it belongs). Education is important. Its been a long time since I was in HS, but how it was presented to me was 'this is bad for you and illegal, only bad kids do drugs.' So, basically, abstinance as an educatiinal platform. Whats needed is for kids to learn HOW its bad- this is how it works and these are the effects. Our schools are pretty good at teaching intelligence, terrible at teaching wisdom. If we spell it out for kids- 'this is what drugs do to your body,' they will be better equipped to deal with Danny the Drug Dealer telling em its cool and feels good.
It's relatively rare amongst Chinese kids in the west. Once again, money has nothing to do with it. And what some might regard as a 'good home' might be anything but. Middle class, married parents who are stable and even religious/conservative, can be the worst parents imaginable.
What do you mean by 'bad home life'? I know far too many middle class, apparently ordinary families who've seen their teenagers go down the drinking/drugs/partying road. In every single case the parents are idiots. The sort of people who haven't made the link between their own behaviour, and that of their kids. The sort of people who clocked off the close supervision and guidance as soon as their kids reached 14 or 15. The sort of people who think 'freedom and self expression' are super important (because freedom means less work for them, and self-expressing kids bathes them in reflected coolness glory).
Well sure, there are those too, but there are also the ones I'm talking about. Not all of them are using drugs for the same reasons.
You haven't spent enough time in Chinese communities. Most take their parents seriously, and have a high level of respect for them. If the parents wouldn't approve, they don't do it.
